Comparing War Poems 'Disabled And Refugee Blues'

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Disabled and Refugee Blues
‘Disabled’ and ‘Refugee Blues’ are written at different wars but depict the same feeling of emptiness. Both poems are passionate responses to the horrors of war. Owen was a soldier but Auden was a pacifist. Auden went to America but Owen fought for his country. ‘Disabled’ was written during a war but ‘Refugee Blues’ before war. Owen’s soldier has suffered physical and mental injuries; but Auden’s German refugee is homeless. The soldier has no hope of love or care of any sort but the refugee has a companion (‘my dear’). ‘Disabled’ is written with a traditional 10 syllable line, the iambic pentameter: but ‘Refugee Blues’ is written in the style of contemporary popular music.
Structure and language
Sadness and melancholy is conveyed in different ways in each stanza for ‘Disabled’. At first the man is ‘sat’ showing how tired he was of everything followed by in a ‘wheeled chair’ telling us he is now dependent on others. ‘He’ represents his lost identity. He is cold and emotionless. The colour ‘grey’ and ‘dark’ show how gloomy is lifeless his surrounding is. The negativity has fenced him with dull imagery. Stanza two introduces his sexual longing experienced by a wounded man. ‘Threw away’ is an active verb which suggests that his suffering was his own volition. He bitterly realises that he will …show more content…

In every reply there is ‘my dear’ but each time it is said it means something different. Each of these repetitions tells us about the difficulties the couple is facing. At the beginning it tells the reader that how much ever they search they won’t get a home. Wherever they go rejection will confront them. Then the couple realises that they have loved ones and relatives. This brings in even more emotion. Stanza 3 is where we know that the poem is related to the blues. There is a lyrical flow which could make the reader realise that someone is trying to comfort a loved one who has been

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